100%

The project involved a basic confectionery product, namely white chocolate (100%...cocoa butter, or almost), to produce a large-format piece as well as a physical feat: one ton of chocolate standing 370 cm long, 270 cm wide and 70 cm high. Since shaping the chocolate entailed passing it through hot and cold, the artist resorted to a technique similar to that used by Joseph Beuys to work with fat and chocolate. Indeed, considering them to be symbols of heat and energy, Beuys particularly appreciated these two materials, and the process by which they could be modeled. Gigon chose to shape his chocolate into a wave expressing movement, livened up perhaps by its responsiveness to the ceiling decoration. On the other hand, perhaps it is more evocative of an enormous slab of painterly material deposited by an equally enormous paintbrush.This time it’s the other way around than for his Snowmen: here it is the sculpture that brings painting to mind. The piece’s powerful presence derives from its size, its smell - which could go bad - and the fact that it’s been set up in a limited space.